Donor Prospect Research for Nonprofit Fundraising

How donor databases and fundraising platforms help drive effective donor prospect research

In the competitive world of nonprofit fundraising, success is driven by how well you understand your donors. Donor prospect research empowers nonprofits, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations to identify, understand, and engage the right supporters at the right time. Using a data-driven fundraising platform with an enriched donor database, organizations like yours can significantly improve fundraising strategies, major gift campaigns, and donor relationships.

Benefits of donor prospect research

The value of investing in donor prospect research cannot be overstated. Here are a few transformative benefits for nonprofit fundraising:

• Higher ROI: By focusing efforts on high-potential donors, nonprofits see better returns on fundraising investments.
• Stronger major donor programs: Identifying major donors early allows for tailored cultivation strategies that increase gift size and frequency.
• Improved donor retention: Personalizing communication builds loyalty and long-term engagement.
• Data-driven decision making: Using a robust fundraising platform integrated with an advanced donor database gives you the confidence to make strategic moves backed by real-time insights.

Donor prospect research vs. wealth screening

While related, donor prospect research and wealth screening are not the same.

• Wealth screening identifies a prospect’s financial capacity based primarily on publicly available wealth indicators like real estate ownership, stock holdings, and business affiliations.
• Donor prospect research goes further, layering on philanthropic interests, prior giving history, and personal values to create a complete prospect profile.

Donor prospect research and wealth screening are key components of a modern fundraising strategy. They complement each other, so it’s helpful to leverage both. When integrated into a platform like Altrata, they enable you to build precise, actionable donor databases.

What type of organizations conduct donor prospect research?

Donor prospect research isn’t just for large national nonprofits. A wide variety of organizations can leverage this strategy:

• Donor prospect research for nonprofits & advocacy organizations: From grassroots movements to global NGOs, prospect research helps identify passionate supporters and major donors.
• Donor prospect research for education institutions: Alumni giving campaigns, capital improvements, and scholarship funds all benefit from a well-researched pool of potential donors.
• Donor prospect research for healthcare organizations: Hospitals, medical research foundations, and health-focused nonprofits use donor research to identify grateful patients and community philanthropists.

Whether you’re building a major gift program or launching a new initiative, a strong fundraising platform and updated donor database are mission-critical tools.

Steps for effective donor prospect research

1. Create a plan

Start by defining your goals. Are you seeking major donors? Planning a capital campaign? Looking to increase annual giving? Your plan will shape your outreach strategy and guide how you use prospect research tools to achieve goals.

2. Start with your own donor database

Your current donor database holds a wealth of untapped potential. Begin by segmenting donors based on giving history, engagement level, and demographics. Data enhancement tools can enrich your database with additional information, such as wealth indicators and board affiliations, ensuring your profiles are up-to-date and complete.

3. Identify new donors using prospect research tools

Our advanced datasets allow nonprofits to find entirely new prospects who fit their ideal donor profiles. Whether you are expanding regionally, nationally, or into new demographic segments, prospecting tools give you a broader and more qualified pool to engage.

4. Make an outreach plan

With detailed profiles in hand, customize your communications. Personalized outreach drives significantly higher engagement and conversion rates, especially for major gifts and planned giving opportunities.

5. Assess campaign performance

Fundraising doesn’t end with a gift. Continually track and analyze your engagement efforts. Our fundraising platform helps you measure performance, refine your strategy, and maximize lifetime donor value.3

What to look for when conducting donor prospect research

Using prospect research tools enables you to craft a list of ideal donors. There are particular criteria you should use to create that list. During donor prospect research, you should look out for three types of indicators:

1. Capacity indicators: Tell you whether this person is in a financial position to become a major donor based on wealth indicators.
2. Affinity indicators: Tell you whether this person has a genuine interest in your organization’s mission.
3. Propensity indicators: Tell you whether this person has a history of charitable giving, particularly to organizations like yours.

Prospect research tools can provide you with specific data relevant to each of these indicators.

Capacity indicators:

Top donors are often business owners and executives, or in other high profile roles. But you need more than job titles to tell you how much wealth a prospective donor has. Wealth indicators include:

• High-income careers (including those mentioned above)
• Real estate ownership
• Stock ownership
• Business affiliations or business ownership

Affinity indicators:

Just because a donor has capacity to give, that does not mean their interests align with your organization. Our UHNW Philanthropy Report examined characteristics of UHNW donors with very high affinity to give, or in other words, the top 20% of UHNW donors for total giving over the last five years in proportion to their total wealth. Other ways to measure affinity include:

• Political giving and involvement
• Donation history and involvement
• Hobbies and interests
• Professional and personal connections with your current donors

Propensity indicators:

Your current donor database holds a wealth of information that can be leveraged to help you prioritize your highest propensity prospects. Past giving is the easiest way to measure propensity to give. Though prospect research tools can give you other insights to measure propensity, including:

• Donations to organizations with similar missions to yours
• Service to your nonprofit or a similar organization
• A history of attending events geared towards philanthropy

How donor prospect research works